The Parma-South library – which will close next year when a replacement library opens on West Ridgewood Drive – apparently will not go to the wrecking ball.

Parma Community General Hospital would become a tenant in the city-owned Parma-South building, 7335 Ridge Road, under a proposed lease agreement.

PCGH would not use the building for medical purposes but would house about 30 workers from its accounting department.

In fact, PCGH plans to move into the building in late May, while the Parma-South library is still open.

The plan calls for PCGH to take over about 4,400 square feet on the second floor of Parma-South. The library has been storing nonfiction and reference material in that area but will move the material downstairs.

Rob Rua, spokesman for the Cuyahoga County Public Library, said CCPL is happy to help PCGH find a new home for its accounting department.

That is because CCPL, to make room for the new West Ridgewood branch, will tear down a second city-owned building in which the PCGH accounting department is now located.

“Since we are the reason they (PCGH accounting workers) are being displaced, we want to be as helpful as we can and find space for these folks,“ Rua said.

City officials are also pleased with the proposed agreement.

“It will keep (30) jobs in Parma,” Mayor Tim DeGeeter said.

However, the city, CCPL and PCGH are still negotiating lease details – including which entity would pay how much to whom.

On Jan. 17, City Council referred the lease agreement to its Finance Committee.

Since 1985, CCPL has been leasing the Parma-South building – the former Royal Ridge Elementary School – from the city, according to Erik Tollerup, the city’s director of community services and economic development.

Meanwhile, for 10-15 years, PCGH has been leasing a 6,000-square-foot city-owned building off West Ridgewood, just east of City Hall. Previously, the city had used the building as a service garage, among other things.

Then, in 2010, CCPL announced plans to consolidate its Parma-South and Parma-Ridge branches into one new library off West Ridgewood.

Those plans meant the end of the city-owned building in which PCGH was a tenant. City and PCGH officials have been looking for a replacement building ever since.

Rua said renovation work to make room for PCGH workers in the Parma-South library is scheduled to start in March.

The library would re-arrange furniture and computers within the building but would not decrease its staff or materials, Rua said.

Rua said the library will try to keep noise to a minimum during the renovation.

“Parma-South is a busy branch so we don’t want to disrupt services,” Rua said.

Rua added that PCGH workers will have their own parking lot and entrance on the southeast side of the Parma-South building.

Rua said CCPL won’t close Parma-South until the new West Ridgewood branch is ready to open. That opening is scheduled for fall 2013.

Tollerup said he expects PCGH to remain in the Parma-South building after the library closes.

However, Tollerup does not expect PCGH to lease the entire building, although it is possible. He said additional tenants might move in.

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